Watchuseek Blog

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Gone but not forgotten: George Daniels 35th anniversary watch

We will not see its like again. Towards the end of last year, Roger W Smith, who trained under legendary British horologist George Daniels, unveiled the Daniels 35th Anniversary wristwatch. It’s the first and only Daniels wristwatch to have been designed and made in its entirety within the shores of the Isle of Man, where Smith and his watchmaking workshop is also based. Housed within the watch is Roger Smith’s variant on the co-axial escapement developed by George Daniels, the only practical improvement to the escapement for 250 years. It’s called the Single Wheel Daniels Co-Axial Escapement. The purpose behind the watch is to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Daniels’ remarkable creation which he ultimately sold to Omega.

Roger W. Smith is co-creator of the watch and protege of the late Dr. George Daniels. He completed the masterpiece almost almost exactly one year following Daniels' death.

It is the completion of a vision with which Daniels originally approached Smith in 2009 and was announced to the world in 2010. However, Daniels did not live to see the watch as the finished item, he died just three weeks after approving the prototype.The watch took 16 weeks to construct and features Daniels’ Stop Start mechanism – a power-saving feature that has been used only once previously, in the Daniels fifteen second Remontoire pocket watch, which was completed in 1975.Being the 35th anniversary, only 35 of these 18ct gold timepieces will ever be made, offering admittedly very well-heeled watch fans a chance to buy a unique piece of Daniels’ – and Smith’s – history as British watchmaking masters.